Navigating Success
Immigrants who have come to America have always faced a host of challenges. Although they may arrive hoping to achieve the American dream and build better lives for themselves and their children, the reality is often much harsher. The experiences of migrants in Hawai‘i from the region of Micronesia are no exception.
1986: The Compact Act of 1986 (U.S Public Law 99-239) was ratified as the commonly known Compact of Free Association (COFA) between the United States and the three independent nations of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Republic of Palau (Palau). One of the provisions of the treaty governed free immigration of citizens of these 3 nations to the United States to seek education, healthcare, and employment.
2007: The Micronesian Awareness Project (MCAP) was established and funded by the Office of Community Services to address the high need to acculturate the State of Hawai‘i agencies to the Micronesian community, with the focus on the Department of Education. MCAP provided over 70 cultural awareness training to State agencies, churches, service providers, and communities statewide.
2008: The Center for Pacific Island Studies at UH Manoa sponsored a 2-day conference, “Micronesian Voices in Hawai‘i” at the East-West Center with Micronesian leaders and community representatives sharing the history and relationship with the U.S., as well as personal stories. The feedback was an overwhelming need for a “one-stop-shop.” Follow-up conferences and meetings on O‘ahu and the neighbor islands also highlighted the need for connecting Micronesian individuals and families to services.
2010: The 2010 U.S Census estimated 15,000 – 17,000 Micronesian migrants in the Hawaiian Islands dispersed over O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua‘i, and the Big Island (Riklon, Alik, Hixon & Neal 2010, p. 9). This number has increased over the years.
2014: Assistant Secretary for the Insular Areas, Esther Kia‘aina held a meeting at the Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services which was attended by over 60 Micronesian government representatives, community members, and Hawai‘i State and Federal representatives. The need for connecting Micronesian families with services was again cited as an unmet need.
2015: Through the leadership of Esther Kia’aina, seed funding was allocated to Oahu-based Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) organization to work with the cofounders of We Are Oceania (WAO) to open a Micronesian One-Stop Center.
2018: The Micronesian One-Stop Center was launched at the St. Elizabeth Church where it continues to operate.
2020: During the pandemic the One-Stop Center became one of the many Pacific Islander-serving organizations in Hawaii that advocated for and served the unique needs of the community.
2023: The Youth Empowerment Center was opened a few blocks away.
Strength in Solidarity
The name, We Are Oceania (WAO), is rooted in the history of the indigenous people who navigated the vast North Pacific known today as Micronesia. They used outrigger canoes (wa‘a in Hawai‘ian), traditional way-finding knowledge, local resources, and master navigators, none more beloved in Hawai‘i than the late Papa Mau Piailug from the Micronesian island of Satawal, to navigate to and settle on their islands.
Spanning thousands of miles of open water, the Micronesian region is home to three sovereign US-affiliated island nations known as the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Republic of Palau (ROP).
In the biography of Tosiwo Nakayama, a key member of the Compact of Free Association nations building core team, Making Micronesia, the author, David Hanlon, describes that the late Nakayama’s expanded vision of Micronesia compares to the worldview of “Micronesia.” It is Nakayama’s indigenous vision that makes Micronesia “Macronesia” and honors the role of the ocean in that it binds these islands together rather than separates them, and provides abundant resources for these islands instead of scarcity.
WAO also means “The Canoe” in Chuukese, one of the languages of Micronesia.